A Tax File Number (TFN) is an unique 9 digit number issued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to all taxpayers ie: individuals, businesses and partnerships. All individuals have a TFN and businesses have both a TFN and a ABN (Australian Business Number).
Since the 1930’s TFNs have been issued by the Australian Tax Office system to collect income and information for all taxpayers commonly known as “data matching” this was further enhanced in 1988. When claiming your income tax return you need not quote your TFN, but in doing so you can delay the process, the ATO can match your income statement against payments reported by all paying bodies.
If you don’t have your individual Tax File Number or haven’t ever applied for one you can end up paying more tax for that year, so you can see how important a TFN is to both yourself and the ATO.
Income payments matched by the ATO to your TFN include: Wages from Employers inc fringe benefits, interest from bank accounts or bonds, Public company dividends, amounts paid to you as a beneficiary (superannuation payments) and some government benefits.
Your application for a TFN will be processed after arrival in Australia and you have your work visa in place, you will require your TFN soon after you start employment. Your TFN will be posted out to your Australian address normally 28 days after the tax office has been notified.
Valid working visas include the following; Working holiday makers (subclass 417), Entertainment (subclass 420), Sport (subclass 421) and Work and holiday makers (subclass 462). As a foreign passport holder to apply for a TFN you must have your resident passport, an Australian address and either a ‘permanent migrant visa’, ‘working holiday visa’ or ‘overseas student visa’
If you need any help with the appropriate visa and your Australian Tax File Number application please do not hesitate to call or email one of our experienced staff at Australian Travel Visas today to discuss what we can do for you.